21 July 2009

Bunny love: The inside story on a pet you didn ' t know you wanted

I confess I've never had a rabbit -- I'm sure some people do it, but somehow, sighthounds and rabbits just don't seem like a good combination to me. But bunnies are pretty much the perfect pet for a lot of people who've never even considered one, and who may not realize just how well a rabbit might fit into their lives and homes.

"Homes" being the operative word, because life in cage or hutch is not life at all for a pet rabbit -- and it's not too fulfilling for the pet owner, either. From my column this week on SFGate.com:

When Jennifer Lee reluctantly agreed to take care of a friend's rabbit for a while, she set him up in a wire cage in her laundry room, just as his owner told her to do. But that didn't feel right to her somehow, so she did a little research online about rabbit care.

Rabbits, it turns out, don't do very well when they're left alone in a cage or backyard hutch. They're bored, because they have nothing to do all day and no one, human or animal, to interact with, and boring, because watching a fuzzy creature stare at the cage wire isn't why most people have pets.

But once you bring them out of the cage and start interacting with them, it's a different story. They hop around, investigate things and love to play with toys. You can even train them, using a little tool popular with dog and cat trainers known as a clicker. "They're completely engaging," said Lee.

So engaging, in fact, that not only did she persuade her friend to change her rabbit-caging ways when she reclaimed her pet, but Lee went out and adopted three rabbits of her own, named Burt, JoJo and Megan.

"Anyone who thinks rabbits are boring pets should see mine," she laughed. "Every night they follow me up three flights of stairs, and sleep under my bed." Except, that is, for 13-pound JoJo, who jumps right up on the bed and sleeps on Lee's feet. "Then in the morning, Burt hops up onto the bed and hops all over me, trying to wake me up. Then he hops down and races over to a little carpet next to the bed, sitting there looking like he's talking to me, telling me to get up and feed them. And the three of them follow me right back down the stairs and run into their little corral to have their breakfast."

Comments

I teach classes on rabbit care and I get questions on litterbox issues more than any other topic. Questions on how to train ... and how to re-train after bun has fallen off the wagon (often a change in litter habits stems from a medical problem).

To litter train, start with a small area of the house, maybe one room or a room divided in half with a puppy training pen. Most people give their rabbits too much freedeom at first, which makes everything harder for bunny and human.

Put two or three litter boxes out in the room -- in the corners. Rabbits like to use the corners for bathrooms because no predators can sneak up behind them. When you catch them using the litterbox, praise! Praise! And use the word "litterbox." They are very capable of learning language. I trained a rabbit to do six stunts last year (jump a hurdle, sit up and beg, leap through the air) by voice command. He was fabulous.

Cat litter is bad bad bad, especially clumping. Newspaper-based litters are good, ex: Yesterday's News. I use Woody Pet litter, which is used in horse stalls. It's woodstove pellets, works perfectly to cover urine smell (their poop has zero smell beyond a slight hay-type odor), and safe to compost. Rabbits are a very green pet ... they are vegan and you can use their waste for fertilizer. I dump litterboxes around the perimeter of my garden and the wild rabbits leave my garden alone. How about that!

I tell owners there is a big difference between hard poops and urine. If a rabbit leaves a poop or two around the house (not 50 but literally, one or two) to mark territory, that is NOT a poorly trained rabbit. If she is peeing outside the litterbox, that is a different story and needs to be resolved.

Litter training is MUCH easier if the rabbit is spayed or neutered and if the rabbit is solo. They are territorial animals, especially female to female.

In my house, I always have at least one foster rabbit, and often many more than that. When my female pet rabbit was alive, she did not appreciate my bringing home other females -- even though I NEVER brought them to her floor. When I brought home girl rabbits I trapped in fields or rescued straight from owners, they were never spayed. Those bunnies would stink -- not to me, but to my pet. So my rabbit would go up onto my bed and leave some poops. NOT TO PUNISH ME. But to let that intruder know who was queen of the hill.

So many people get rid of their bunnies because of litter problems that are 100 percent solvable. Rabbits are often easier to train than owners.

As for dogs and cats ...

I have met hundreds and hundreds of rabbit owners. I would say most also have a dog or cat, and many have both. I foster and petsit dogs and I've had a Jack Russell, Belgian Shepherd and Shepherd/Collie mix stay with me for extended periods with no problems.

This is the best footage I've ever seen of a dog and rabbit together. The good part starts at 2:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfaj6ACE3Fo

What Weber does at the end, the wild leaping, is called a "binky." That's one of the stunts I taught to my agility bun last year.

Rabbits are blessed and cursed with their looks. Most are "cute" even as adults, and they are just not taken seriously. Once you know how to read their body language, you find out how smart and WILLFUL they can be.

Rabbits can definitely be litter-trained. I first kept my now 12 year old dwarf hotot rabbit in a cage but noticed that she went in the same area of her cage every time so I let her out in the house and trained her to go in a litter box.

It was a big challenge when I got my first dog though. Turns out my shelter dog is mostly border collie and terrier so she has a big prey drive but now they get along pretty well and play together sometimes.

I never did get my rabbit use to walking with a harness though... She always managed to squirm out of them.

Rabbits can easily be litter trained... I have no clue HOW you do that, if it's like cats and the moms do it, or what, but every rabbit owner I've known has said they are easy to train to use a litter box, and I've never seen rabbit poops in their houses, LOL...

Can rabbits be litter trained? My family had two and while they were quite cute and it was lots of fun to watch them hop around the house, they pooped EVERYWHERE. Little rabbit poops for the dog to vacuum up.

I was waiting for Mary Mary too, to ask if one can have a house rabbit with other pets such as cats and dogs in house. And the poop, I was wondering about the poop, too... :O) There are so many that need fostering and adoption on petfinder...

Tammy ... a lot of people have cats and rabbits, and they get along very well. Dogs, however, can be very problematic.

That said, I have fond memories of two pets -- retriever Ben and rabbit Turbo -- who got along so well the rabbit slept next to the retriever. Turbo also once JUMPED over a sleeping Ben to get to the litter box.

I had a rabbit as a kid - kept in a hutch outside... Knowing what I do now about rabbits, he probably wasn't very happy! I'd love to have a house rabbit at some point. My kitties probably wouldn't be too happy about it though!